Sure 24 Youth Group.

Pastor Sammie Nwali took  Teresa and I to the Nakuru dump where he’s started a youth group. There are about 15 kids in Pastor Sammie’s youth group, all high school grads. There are now faced with what to do with their lives. Pastor Sammie has supported a couple of them to go to college, while the others are still hoping, praying, and working towards their college goals. Each one of them want to give back to their community, so they’ve started raising money for a small bakery they will all work together and run. Pastor Sammie donated an oven for them to get started on their bakery but they just needed to raise $30 to transport the oven to their bakery. Teresa and I donated the money they needed for transportation of the oven so they could get started. Great things are going to come out of these kids! Please send them your thoughts and prayers!

 2500 Families at the Nakuru Dump live in homes like this one! They survive by scavenging through finding food to eat, or mothers and fathers collecting plastic to sell to plastic and recycle companies for small money to feed their children.

Sure 24 Girls&Boys Home/School

I'm sorry it's been a few days since my last post, I've been exhausted... I'm still trying to get over my jet lag. 

This past Saturday I got to visit Sure 24, which is a girls&boys home for children who either have no home, were abandoned, or their parents couldn't afford to take care of them. All of the children at Sure 24 have sponsors. The girls and boys live there and go to school there as well. I'm not sure how many children live there exactly, but it's probably around 100 or so. 

Once the children finish high school at Sure 24 they either learn a trade, or sometimes(very rarely) go to college. At Sure 24 they have small trade programs like, wood shop, a basic mechanic shop, and sewing. It's very difficult for the girls and boys to go to college, they have no money for tuition or supplies. 

On Saturdays they have their "Feeding Program"which is open to the entire community. All the children in the community will gather together and have activities for each age group. In the morning they are taught about the bible and sing worship songs, after that they have recess where they'll play soccer and volleyball. After a morning of uplifting activities they are served a hot meal, usually oogali and some kind of veggie. (Oogali is a staple food in most African countries, but different countries have different names for it. It's basically a maize paste that's kind of like very bland mashed potatoes.)  After lunch they go home to spend the rest of the day with their family and friends. Teresa and I got to eat there with them and spend a little time with them.

Teresa has 2 girls at Sure 24 that are under Sure 24, Saiboku and Grace. After lunch we got special permission to take Saiboku and Grace home with us for the night. We took them to dinner and watched a movie, The Lion King...they LOVED it! I also gave them brand new night gowns that were donated to me before leaving the US. Teresa had mentioned that the girls are always cold, especially at night. Most all of the buildings here are made of stone so it's very cold at night and in the morning. I mentioned this to my mom and she told some small groups about it and several people wanted to donate night gowns. Saiboku and Grace loved their night gowns and were so grateful. 

Both girls have very unique backgrounds...I'll fill you in on their stories on the next post. 

Thanks for reading! :)

 Saiboku and Grace in their new warm nightgowns!

Home Sweet Nakuru!

Well, I'm finally home in Nakuru! Yesterday we traveled from Nairobi to Nakuru, stopping in Delemare for a yummy delicious Indian lunch where I saw some cute little monkeys and these HUGE ugly storks. I also got to see The Great Rift Valley, approximately 6,000 kilometres (3,700 mi) in length, and it runs from northern Syria to central Mozambique in South East Africa. I also got to see wild zebra, waterbuck, gazelle, and baboons! It was awesome!! I was so glad when we finally made it home. I'm settled in and unpacked. Today we're resting and taking it easy, and going grocery shopping. Tomorrow I get to go to the girls home!!! I'm so ready to meet all the girls and start spending time with them. This is going to be a very exciting 6 months! Keep me in your prayers!

I MADE IT

Well, after 24 hours of travel, 3 flights, and about 4 hours of sleep, I have officially made it to Kenya! We landed around 10:30pm Kenya time and spent the night at Mayfield Missionary Guest House here in Nairobi. Nairobi reminds me so much of Lima, Peru! After breakfast Teresa and I have another 3 hours of travel to our home in Nakuru. Patrick, Teresa's hired driver, will come pick us up around 10am (I'm hoping all our bags will fit in her car) and then we'll head to Nakuru. On our way home we'll be traveling through The Great Rift Valley, where I might get to see some wild zebra!! Well...this is it, the start to my exciting new adventure!! 

Thank you to everyone for all the prays! Sending love from Kenya...many pictures to come!

My Responsibilities

I will have many responsibilities in Kenya. My main job will be helping Teresa with a lot of her administrative work, like sending out newsletters and updating her website. My second job will be getting to know the rescued girls, getting their biographies, and sending out short videos of them talking to their American sponsors so their sponsors know how the girls are doing. Other than that I'll be traveling around the country to tribes with Teresa evangelizing. I'm so excited for the work I'll be doing in Kenya! Keep me in your prayers!

Now to finish up packing! LEAVING IN THE MORNING!! 

Kenya here I come! :)

Desert Rose Ministries

This post is just to give everyone some background on the ministry I'll be working for in Kenya.

Teresa June Webb moved to Nukuru, Kenya and started a ministry called Desert Rose Ministry. Her main job was rescuing girls from FGM (female genital mutilation) and early childhood marriage. Just to give you some background on the culture, FGM is tradition practiced daily to young girls in a lot of African counties. After the procedure these young girls are married off to men their grandfathers age as a fifth or sixth wife. When Teresa caught wind of a girl who wanted to escape from that, usually the girls would just run away, Teresa would place them in a girls home, there are several homes around Kenya. Once in the home, Teresa would find them American sponsors for them which would provide clothing, food, shelter, and education. 

There is a tree in Kenya called the Desert Rose Tree, this tree grows in harsh environments next to boulders and rocks and harsh soil, but blooms the most beautiful pink flowers. Teresa was trying to find a name for her ministry when she thought about the desert rose tree...it reminded her so much of the girls she's rescued. These young girls grow up in harsh environments with cruel traditions, but after being rescued they grow up into beautiful confident women. Teresa knew that had to be the name of the ministry. 

One of Teresa's mottos is "Touch the untouched, and love the unloved." Not only does Teresa rescue girls from FGM, she also goes out where God's word has never been heard and hands out handheld solar paneled audio bibles. Teresa goes on 2 day hikes on top of mountains to reach primitive tribes who have never heard the word. There are no schools or education so of course the people in these tribes can't read or write. So Teresa got ahold of some of these solar paneled audio bibles and gave them to these tribes so they could listen to the word in their own language.

I'm so excited to be working alongside Teresa and her amazing ministry! 

The Story

If anyone is curious about my journey and how it got started this post is to fill you in. 

Okay, well I've always had a heart for missions. I went to Peru the summers of 2007-2009 on 2 week mission trips with my church, and then for 3 months the summer of 2010 as an intern. Peru ignited my passion for missions. The summer of 2011 I went to Uganda and Ethiopia on a trip with Visiting Orphans (http://www.visitingorphans.org) and we spent a week and a half in each country. That trip was life changing. I had a new love...AFRICA! Each country was equal in beauty. My time in Ethiopia was the hardest week of my life. We worked in Korah, originally a leper community that was thrown away by society, the only place they found refuge was a trash dump where they lived and ate from. We got special permission to go see the trash dump one day while there...I've never seen anything so horrific in my entire life. I've never been the same after that. I knew I wanted to dedicate myself to the mission field, if it was in God's will that is. 

After my trip to Africa I knew I'd go back. A year past.. I was in school and working part time. In October 2012 I moved back home to do my internship for school. Once a year at my church in Prattville, they have "Orphan Sunday" where they stress the importance of adoption and stuff liked that. In the middle of my pastors sermon I wasn't sure if it was God, now I know it was, or just a random thought from my ADD brain. "You needed to go on a long term mission." I've always wanted to go on a long term mission trip, but never knew how to get it started. Well, that random thought was all I could think about that day. The next day my mom and sister got back from a mini vacation in New York for my sisters 16th birthday, I immediately talked to my mom about my thoughts on a long term mission. She said God would open a door if it was in His will and to keep praying about it. So I did. 

I started getting nervous...my internship for school was almost over and there was word around the office I was interning at that they wanted to hire me. Most kids my age would be like...score! Not me. If I took the job it would be a commitment. Why would God give me a calling and not open an opportunity? I DID NOT want to wait to go on a mission!!! Well I called a friend in Huntsville and told her my calling, she told me her church sponsored a woman in Kenya and if I came to visit we could talk to her church to see if we could get in contact with the woman in Kenya...who knows, maybe she could used some help there. I hadn't been to Huntsville in about a year so I agreed. This was the weekend before the office I was interning with was going to offer me a job... 

"Okay, God...this is it, either you open an opportunity this weekend for a long term mission or I'm taking the job." I wasn't sure if that was a good way to pray, but I really wanted an answer.

I arrived in Huntsville Friday night. When I got there my friend ran into the room and screamed "SHE'S HERE!! SHE'S HERE!" I was like...what? Teresa June Webb, the founder of Desert Rose Ministries in Nukuru, Kenya and the woman her church was sponsoring was not only in the States for 2 months visiting churches and raising money..but she was in Huntsville THAT VERY WEEKEND. I was FREAKING out! I ended up having dinner with Teresa Sunday night and we instantly clicked! She had been praying for an intern for a while, and really needs the help. She's been there 4 years and her ministry has grown bigger than just her, and she's all on her own there. I was beside myself excited! She had reservations about me at first because other people had promised to come and didn't...well she didn't know me! We worked everything out, she met my mom and associate pastor from my church and now I'm going to be there for 6months as her first intern! Everything just happened in perfect timing. God is so good!

I felt undeserving of such a great opportunity. I didn't deserve an answered prayer, and I still don't understand why God chose me...but I'm SO grateful. 

And the journey has begun...19 DAYS!! 

To Pack, Or Not To Pack...

Well I bought my projector and a 16GB HD video memory card today and I'm done spending a lot of  money haha. I only have little things to buy now like socks, pony tail holders, vitamins, and snacks. I'm definitely going to have to pay for an extra bag to check...my packing list keeps growing...ahhh. 

20 DAYS LEFT!